Long before Ace Ventura, The Mask and Dumb and Dumber made him a superstar, Jim Carrey was already stunning audiences with his impressions. As a teenager in Canada, he built his early comedy career by transforming his face, voice and entire body into famous personalities.

By just 21, Carrey appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and raced through impressions that included Elvis Presley, Jack Nicholson, Clint Eastwood, Charles Bronson and James Dean. Even before he spoke, Carrey could sometimes make the audience recognize the celebrity simply by changing his facial expression.

His impressions later became part of the madness he brought to In Living Color, where viewers got an early look at the extraordinary physical comedy that would eventually make him one of Hollywood’s biggest stars. But Carrey eventually realized that impersonating other celebrities could only take him so far—he wanted audiences to remember Jim Carrey himself.

That decision changed everything. By 1994, Ace Ventura, The Mask and Dumb and Dumber transformed the former impressionist into a movie phenomenon—but those early performances still show something remarkable: Hollywood hadn’t made Jim Carrey funny. He arrived that way.